Monday, March 17, 2008

Some things to pass along

A few items worth sharing:

Futurismic posted a most intriguing essay yesterday. Mac Tonnies, known for his case of the Posthuman Blues announced to the world:

I have a confession to make: I am a “transhuman ufologist.”

Aw man, that's awesome.

Retrospectively, it seemed bound to happen some day.

I think Futurismic has done a great thing. I look forward to the shitstorm of controversy that is due to well up as everyone goes back to work Monday morning.

But seriously, I think that ufology is an unfairly maligned line of inquiry that deserves some form of serious consideration. It's too pervasive to ignore. Even if it's all bullshit, it's still significant enough to warrant (mainstream academic) study in some capacity; psychology is really dropping the ball in that regard. Even mythology and folklore won't touch it with a ten foot pole, not to mention the curious lack of coverage in the science fiction world.

Kudos to Mr. Tonnies and Futurismic for bringing this conversation on to a different and potentially fertile platform.
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In this case, steampunk meets the future. Mechanical computers are back!

DARPA is seeding the development of nanomechanical computers, robust enough to operate in conditions where conventional semiconductors would fail. (read: weapon systems and warfare environments.)

via plausible futures
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The secret China-U.S. hacking war seems to be heating up.

This is nothing new. I've been hearing about this for years. What's significant is that I suspect there is more mainstream media coverage to come.

Many of us inhabit a rather rarefied internet. Behind the curtain there would appear to be a majority that ranges from the horribly banal to the outright sinister. The internet is a minefield of sleaze, scams, chain letters, ephemera, rants, pirating, predation, flame-wars, spam, phishing, viruses, espionage, fraud, all the things that are wrong about consumerism and now, state sanctioned warfare.

via KurzweilAI.net
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Finally, from the 'Is this for real?' file:

Meet the Fire God: He Cooks With His Hands

via Technoccult

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